The Shire is named for Amleth MacAuleth. He was the founder of the neighboring Shire of Standing Stones, perhaps the first SCA branch in Missouri. He passed a few years before our shire was founded so it was a way to ensure his name was not forgotten. Mor i.e. Moor describes much of the terrain around here.
The name was first submitted as Amleth Moor, but this was rejected by the College of Heralds for mixing English with Danish. As the shire was ready to become official and a name was needed the College suggested Amlesmore. That name was taken, and we went by that until last night when the new name was registered.
A resubmission of Amleth Moor was made a few years later, but it was again rejected on the same grounds. A few years passed when a couple of years ago I came up with the idea of putting the name fully in Old Norse/Danish thus Amlethsmor. This would negate the reason for rejection the first two times.
I documented as best I could. There were over ten pages of documentation. Even so the name would have been rejected on the grounds Amlethus was not a real person, but Lillia Pelican Emerita found a byname Amleth in Middle English and was able to document Amlethsmor.
Thus after nearly twenty years we have a form of the name the shire wanted. ☺
In Service,
Hubert
